God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.
Parallel translations
- WEB May it never be! Yes, let God be found true, but every man a liar. As it is written, “That you might be justified in your words, and might prevail when you come into judgment.”
- BSB Certainly not! Let God be true and every man a liar. As it is written: “So that You may be proved right when You speak and victorious when You judge.”
- NKJV Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar. As it is written: “That You may be justified in Your words, And may overcome when You are judged.”
- NASB Far from it! Rather, God must prove to be true, though every person be found a liar, as it is written: “So that You are justified in Your words, And prevail when You are judged.”
- NLT Of course not! Even if everyone else is a liar, God is true. As the Scriptures say about him, “You will be proved right in what you say, and you will win your case in court.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
By no means may God be made false; let God be true though every person is a liar, as Scripture says of His being justified. God's truthfulness stands even when all humanity fails.
Overview
Paul emphatically rejects any thought of God being unfaithful: 'May it never be!' He affirms that God must be held true even if every human is shown a liar. Quoting Psalm 51:4, he shows that when God judges, He is proven right and just. God's righteousness and truthfulness are vindicated precisely in His dealings with sinful people.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 32
- Ps 51:4Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.
- Ps 116:11I said in my haste, All men are liars.
- Gal 2:17But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.
- Heb 6:18That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:
- Titus 1:2In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;
- Deut 32:4He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.
- John 3:33He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true.
- Job 36:3I will fetch my knowledge from afar, and will ascribe righteousness to my Maker.
- Rev 3:7And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth;
- Ps 119:160Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever.
- Ps 138:2I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.
- Rom 9:14What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.
- 1 Jn 5:20And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.
- Gal 2:21I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
- Job 40:8Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?
- 1 Jn 5:10He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.
- Mic 7:20Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.
- Ps 100:5For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.
- Rom 3:31Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.
- Matt 11:19The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of her children.
- Gal 6:14But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.
- Rom 6:15What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
- Rom 11:1I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
- Rom 11:11I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.
- Rom 3:6–7God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world?
- Rom 7:7What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.
- Rom 6:2God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
- Luke 20:16He shall come and destroy these husbandmen, and shall give the vineyard to others. And when they heard it, they said, God forbid.
- 2 Cor 1:18But as God is true, our word toward you was not yea and nay.
- Ps 62:9Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity.
- Rom 7:13Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.
- 1 Cor 6:15Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Paul unfolds the gospel in full: Christ our righteousness received by faith, the second Adam in whom many are made righteous, in whose death and resurrection we are buried and raised.
How Romans 3:4 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.